The former deputy speaker of Bulgaria’s Parliament, Hristo Bisserov, has been found innocent of charges including tax evasion, breaking the law on foreign currency transactions, and submitting incorrect information to the National Audit Office.

Leaked recordings that appear to feature two senior Bulgarian magistrates have once again drawn attention to the country’s judiciary, lack of separation of powers, and questionable adherence to rule of law.

The founder and leader of Bulgaria’s ultranationalist party Ataka (Attack), Volen Siderov, and a fellow legislator from the same party were arrested Tuesday in an unprecedented move by the country’s law enforcement.

Several high-profile hearings coincided with a visit to Bulgaria by the director general of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), Giovanni Kessler, who criticized the country yet again for not taking enough concrete actions to tackle corruption.

Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry has launched an ambitious new scheme to prevent and combat corruption in the police force through a set of wide-ranging measures from compulsory property declarations to lie detector tests and integrity testing.